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81 Comments
- krusader3z, on 08/04/2008, -1/+22I like seeing my tax dollars invested into the sciences. The spillover into the consumer world is always beneficial.
- Scaryclouds, on 08/03/2008, -2/+18Whoa I can't believe the time tables for the Lunar X prize. That would be pretty awesome to see up close pictures of Tranquility Base come this time next year. Plus it would shut my dad up with his stupid crap about the whole moon landings being faked.
- matt510, on 08/03/2008, -0/+14It is smarter to go back to the Moon first and develop it as a base. Telescopes could also be setup there which would be a huge help to astronomers. Using the Moon as a place to construct a Mars mission would be much easier than doing everything within Earth's gravity.
- DeathJux, on 08/04/2008, -0/+13http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/21jul_llr. ...
Show your dad that, and then punch him in the gunt for being a dummy. - TxAggie08, on 08/04/2008, -3/+15Does this mean the nutjob moon landing conspiracy theorist on Digg will finally have to shut up?
- ironeus, on 08/03/2008, -2/+14All the physical object on the moon either disintegrated or gone over time is highly liked by conspiracy theorists.
- DrPickle, on 08/04/2008, -2/+11In 3 weeks the Mythbusters are doing a show on this...
http://mythbustersresults.com/mythbusters-tackle-m ... - BossKey, on 08/04/2008, -0/+7Unlike Earth, there's no atmosphere to filter destructive ultraviolet radiation.
And the atmosphere-filtered amount of UV we get down here on the Earth's surface is still enough to fade inks, disintegrate plastics, and cause eye cataracts and skin cancer, in a lot less than 40 years. Up there...forget it.
You also didn't read the part in the article about the grains of sand flying around constantly. - BossKey, on 08/04/2008, -0/+6I heard that there will at least be an amusement park, some farms, and whalers.
- matt510, on 08/04/2008, -0/+6Did you guys read the article? The said metals and glass should be pretty much the same. They also said that the footprints will most likely still be intact aside from light dusting from the movement of some particles.
- JacksonYaya, on 08/04/2008, -0/+6Conspiracy theorists often admit they are wrong, but the Trilateral Commission erases all evidence of those admissions almost immediately.
- FulcrumVitesse, on 08/04/2008, -2/+8Conspiracy theorists are never daunted by facts. Even when the sites are some day clearly photographed, they will have some explanation for it that preserves their theories. Have you ever heard a conspiracy theorist admitting he was wrong?
- humanerror, on 08/04/2008, -0/+5Umm. You realize those satellites are orbiting the earth, right?
- RogerStrong, on 08/04/2008, -0/+4a) Launching to lunar orbit requires a much more expensive launcher than launching to low earth orbit. Your commmunications costs are much higher too. And mass concentrations make the moon's gravity "bumpy" - satellites don't stay in orbit long without lots of station-keeping fuel, which takes up more of your mass budget.
b) GeoEye has one hell of a lot more paying customers than any lunar probe. Science gets money from the government, but only so much.
c) GeoEys is a one-trick pony: a big camera. Those lunar probes have other instruments besides cameras, for mineral mapping, etc. The last US probe didn't even have a camera. - adml_shake, on 08/04/2008, -1/+4Words can't describe the level of ***** stupid you have shown here.
- RogerStrong, on 08/04/2008, -0/+3That means a much bigger satellite, which in turn means a much more expensive launcher. With little scientific value in taking pictures of lunar landing sites, there's not much call to fund such a mission.
- RogerStrong, on 08/04/2008, -0/+2"The Case For Mars" wasn't perfect - it had the astronauts spending the six or eight month return to earth in an Apollo-sized capsule.
And I agree with others that the moon is the best place for our first outpost. Better to test equipment 4 days travel away, rather than a year away.
The government won't fund Mars Direct in one jump. But if the launchers and habitats already exist, thier development and testing already paid for, Mars becomes an incremental step with less money needed.
Having said that, Mars is our best bet for a colony, and not just for the reasons you mention: A colony implies children being born and raised there. We don't know how much gravity is needed for proper bone development, and we won't be finding out soon, since congress cut the big centrifuge from the ISS budget. But with Mars having twice the gravity of the moon, it's a lot closer to what we know works. - RogerStrong, on 08/04/2008, -0/+2A lot of people agree with this.
- Scaryclouds, on 08/03/2008, -1/+3I believe water has been found on the Moon. Plus it would be really good experience to land on the moon again. Discovery Channel's series "When we Left Earth" really shows how much work experimentation we did before we went to the Moon. Mars would be several order of magnitude more difficult to achieve than the Moon. In other words you need to learn to walk before you can run.
- inactive, on 08/04/2008, -1/+3"only...sunlight..."?
That alone will decay half the stuff up there. - MacParrot, on 08/04/2008, -0/+21. Learn a trade that is useful in space or on another planet
2. Sign on to be an indentured servent and essentially be a slave for about 7 years.
3. ???????
4. PROFIT!!!!! - lithera, on 08/03/2008, -2/+4I foresee some profitable tourist locations there someday. Maybee this is the reason the Chinese are so hung up on their spaceprogram.
- nitesoIja, on 08/04/2008, -3/+5***** it i want some pictures
- thedogfatherx, on 08/04/2008, -0/+2"Some people, of course, will never believe. You could sit them at a table across from Neil Armstrong and a pile of moonrocks, and they’d still never accept that almost 40 years ago, people walked on another world"
That pretty much sums up the moon conspiracy losers.
Can't wait for the pictures. Very exciting. - TxAggie08, on 08/04/2008, -0/+2Yeah but they had to use the alien computer at area 51, as we hadn't reverse engineered enough to do a proper CG yet :P
- CATSCEO2, on 08/04/2008, -0/+2Dumbass. Get off this planet.
- inactive, on 08/04/2008, -0/+2ok that makes sense then, so photographing the landing site is just an afterthought
- EtherGnat, on 08/04/2008, -0/+2Satellites typically maintain an altitude of 250-25,000 miles, depending on type of orbit. The moon is about 250,000 miles away. It doesn't seem weird at all you can get a better picture of something that is relatively close than something 1,000x farther.
- noen, on 08/04/2008, -0/+2All that can also be done from orbit. Stuff would be closer. Like we can't put telescopes in high earth orbit? Or can't construct a base in orbit and from there launch directly to Mars? I don't see the reason to go to the Moon.
- Jareth86, on 08/04/2008, -0/+2Putting a base on the moon would give us quicker access to mars.
- matt510, on 08/04/2008, -0/+2You skipped science class a lot in high school didn't you?
- joaob, on 08/04/2008, -2/+3somebody call the waaahhhmmmbulaance
- matt510, on 08/04/2008, -0/+1As others have already said in this discussion, it is a matter of resolution. From that far away the Hubble doesn't have nearly the resolution, even the satellites in orbit around the moon don't have that kind of resolution, it was never needed.
- ThreeE, on 08/04/2008, -1/+2A vastly better idea is to skip the moon and Mars and just go asteroid hunting ala "Mining the Sky:"
http://www.amazon.com/Mining-Sky-Untold-Asteroids- ... - inactive, on 08/04/2008, -1/+2Wasn't "waaaing" to anyone. Just stating how the show has gone to hell.
- matthobbs05, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1Morse code via airwaves? I wasn't aware that Morse code was sent from a loudspeaker.
- travis1982, on 08/04/2008, -0/+1anyone wanting to save some brain cells from implosion...don't read TKS123's comment history. Christ...I didn't think people could be that dumb.
- starmanjones, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1i disagree. beating the russians got the funding. but that isn't the reason for going or going back. we should never have left. we should have followed it up with 1000's of people.
- intangible, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1How big of a handbag do I need to carry the universe with me?
- bitbytebit, on 08/06/2008, -0/+1The space museum in Alamogordo has either a lander or capsule (or both, can't remember) and its pretty damn scary. Everything is analog and just seems so clunky.
I used to think that maybe the moon landings were faked for propaganda purposes, but have long since changed my mind. However who knows, maybe not - spawnfree, on 08/04/2008, -0/+1i am really looking forward to seeing what the landers rocket engine should have done to a lunar type surface, and why no dust settled on the feet.
- DeathJux, on 08/04/2008, -3/+4I don't understand, wouldn't everything be in practically the same condition? The only "wear and tear" would be the sunlight that's shone on everything, right?
- flipmeat, on 08/04/2008, -0/+1 The main reason there has not been any hi-res imaging of the landing sites is that there were these great guys walking around in spacesuits, taking pictures of the site while they were freaking standing there. When you have that kind of coverage, you don't plan to take pictures of the same place over again with a space probe, where every pound has to count towards a new scientific result.
In the 60's, nobody ever, ever thought there would be a legion of mouth breathers saying 'Hurr, nope, never happened cos I di'nt see it mahself.'
Don't expect your ignorace to be accommodated by engineers and scientists, who are in their jobs due to the inspiration the Apollo program gave them. - flipmeat, on 08/04/2008, -0/+1History does not require belief to be true.
If an historian writes a falsehood in a history book, the rest of the history crowd will make sure everyone knows, and he/she won't be invited to any more history geek parties. It's kind of like Wikipedia, but it's been going on for centuries.
Now, go browse www.apolloarchive.com for a while, it's way cool. - RogerStrong, on 08/04/2008, -0/+1A Japanese and a Chinese satellite are, but their cameras aren't high enough resolution. Both used extra mass for other instruments instead - like instruments that can map minerals on the moon. The last US probe didn't even have a camera.
- dbzssj44676, on 08/04/2008, -0/+1That moon lander is just tricks of light and shadow.
:P - Supernova36, on 08/04/2008, -0/+1We're Whalers on the moon, we carry a harpoon..
- shadowman99, on 08/04/2008, -0/+1It won't shut him up.
"The X Prize is faked too! They're in on 'it'!"
The thing about people who believe conspiracy theories - the moment you prove them wrong, you become a new extension of the old conspiracy. - starmanjones, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1the deal is... where do we base operations? earth? send everything up the gravity well? i don't see how we can avoid near earth operations as a base for going elsewhere.
there is something that is often left out of literature over a year or so old and thats we need gravity. if we don't have gravity or "hopefully" a substitute our bones go brittle and our immune system shuts down. that need makes everything bigger. probably constructed and supplied on orbit.
i'm not planet guy. i'm with ya but we need to build dock yard so we can build the ships. and we need to build the ships so they keep us alive and happy. i might like it in a steel hulk because it would just be so sweet... but most i think will need the open air of a colony and trees and rivers and all that somewhere between here and the asteroid belt.
in fact we should name it babylon6. :D scifi tradition. - floridiot2, on 08/04/2008, -0/+1Can they not focus the hubble telescope on the moon or something? How the ***** are we not capable of taking pictures of the landing site?
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